ORANIA: THE WHITES-ONLY TOWN IN SOUTH AFRICA

In 2024, South Africans were among the more than 3-billion people who went to the polls in more than 60 countries in national elections.

For South Africa, the elections had historical significance - they came at a time when the country was marking three decades since the end of apartheid.

When apartheid ended in 1994, many Black South Africans had high expectations about what the future held for them after centuries of social and economic exclusion.

Decades later, the African National Congress (ANC), which has governed the country since 1994, is facing accusations of not doing enough to dismantle apartheid-era socio-economic structures and injustices. Nothing exemplifies this better than the existence of Orania, a Whites-only town in the country’s Northern Cape province.

Continued…….. The town has been a source of tension since its establishment in the early ‘90s during the last days of apartheid. The town’s founders and residents claim its purpose is to preserve the culture and identity of the Afrikaner people, White South Africans of mostly Dutch, French and German descent.

However, many people think the town and its policy of not allowing non-White residents is nothing but a racist endeavour to maintain some vestiges of the apartheid system. The town’s residents insist that its existence is protected by Article 235 of the South African constitution, which guarantees self-determination. However, many have argued that the cited part of the constitution does not, in fact, permit people of a particular religious or cultural group to live in a secluded place away from other South Africans. In 2000, the Northern Cape High Court adjourned ‘sine die’ (without a further hearing date) after Orania’s proponents challenged attempts by the government to incorporate the town into the nearby municipal authority.

African Stream was shown around Orania by some of the locals, who shared their opinions about their community with us. We’d love to hear yours as well in the replies.

HAITIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY

On this day in 1804, Haiti became the first modern-day Black republic in the world and the first nation to successfully abolish slavery through a revolution led predominantly by formerly enslaved Africans. This unprecedented victory over French slavery served as a beacon of hope and resilience for oppressed people, particularly those of African descent, signaling that liberation from the chains of slavery and colonial domination was not only possible but achievable. Haiti's revolution directly challenged the global systems of racial and economic oppression, inspiring movements for independence across the Caribbean and beyond.

Despite this groundbreaking achievement, Haiti's path forward has been fraught with enduring challenges rooted in the legacies of Western imperialism. The newly independent nation was ostracized by global powers, with countries like the United States and France refusing to recognize its sovereignty for decades.

Continued…….. In a deeply unjust and unprecedented act, Haiti was forced to pay a crippling indemnity to France to compensate for its “loss” of enslaved labor and land - a staggering financial burden that plunged the country into economic hardship, the consequences of which persist to this day.

This sabotage was further compounded by subsequent interventions, exploitative trade policies, and political interference by foreign powers, all of which systematically undermined Haiti's ability to build a stable and prosperous future. Today, instead of addressing the roots of Haiti's crisis, foreign interventions - such as the involvement of nations like Kenya in serving U.S. interests through occupation - exacerbate existing challenges while failing to tackle the systemic inequalities and historical injustices that have shaped the country's reality.

Yet, despite these obstacles, the spirit of resistance and resilience that defined Haiti's fight for independence remains a cornerstone of its identity. Haiti’s Independence Day stands as a powerful reminder of the courage and determination of African people in the face of oppression. It calls upon the world to honor this legacy by addressing the long-standing injustices that continue to weigh on the nation and by working toward a future where true sovereignty and self-determination can be realized.

THE TALLEST MONUMENT IN AFRICA

It's Africa's tallest statue, a revolutionary symbol against the shackles of colonialism, a call for unity among African nations, an enduring emblem of Pan-Africanism and has grown into a top tourist attraction. The African Renaissance Monument is something to look up to and represents Africa standing tall 21st century and beyond.

As the new year begins, this week’s Wednesday wisdom from Pan-African thinker, revolutionary and All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (@aaprp on X) co-founder Kwame Ture (1941-98), offers a timely reminder that ‘liberation’ is the word of our people, not ‘peace,’ as injustice can exist, even with the absence of chaos.

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYQRkS53TU

FATHER OF AFRICAN FILM

One hundred and two years ago, the “father of African film”, Ousmane Sembène, was born in Ziguinchor, Senegal. Sembène’s career began modestly, working a number of manual jobs. In 1944, he was drafted into a corps of the French Army where he was forced to fight in World War II.

After returning to Senegal, he participated in the 1947 Dakar–Niger Railway strike. Later that year he made a break for France where he actively engaged with the French trade union movement by joining the General Confederation of Labour and the communist party. While in France he helped to lead yet another strike to halt a shipment of weapons destined for use in the war against Vietnam. These acts of class consciousness and international solidarity would become reoccurring themes in his future creative work.

Continued…….. After teaching himself to read and write in French, Sembène began writing fiction. His first novel, Le Docker Noir (The Black Docker), released in 1956, highlights the life of an African dock worker. In 1960, Sembène released Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God’s Bits of Wood), a fictional account of the Dakar–Niger Railway strike. While he found great satisfaction in tackling social issues in his writing, he began to consider that film might be a “more effective tool” for his activism. “To summarize history using our oral tradition,” he said, “cinema is an important tool for us.”

As a filmmaker, Sembène sought to challenge colonial modes of film production and expression. He directed films in various African languages including Wolof, Fulfulde, and Mandinka. Sembène’s choice to incorporate indigenous languages into his films was a deliberate effort to represent the rich cultural and linguistic tapestry of Africa. It aligned with his broader mission of decolonizing African cinema and promoting authentic narratives rooted in local experiences. This viral clip from the film Caméra d’Afrique speaks to an idea that African artists today should remember: Europe (the West) should not be the center of our world.

CAPITALISM REQUIRES RACISM AND INEQUALITY

According to Dr Ruth Wilson Gilmore, capitalism requires inequality to function, and racism enshrines that inequality. Or, as the great Pan-Africanist Malcolm X put it, ‘You can’t have capitalism without racism.’

In this clip from a recent talk, Gilmore, a scholar at @GC_CUNY, who has been studying the relationship between racism, capitalism, and the US prison system for over 30 years, explained that capitalism needs to keep people divided into categories to continue exploiting them. If nothing separates us, one can imagine the dangers a united working class might pose to the capitalist system.

In addition to dividing modern workers, capitalists needed to deploy racism to develop the initial capital used to create their now global system. Thus came chattel slavery in the Americas, g*nocide across multiple continents, and colonial theft around the world. 

Continued……In the words of assassinated Burkina Faso President Thomas Sankara (1949-87), ‘It is our blood that nourished the rise of capitalism, that made possible our present condition of dependence and consolidated our underdevelopment. But we cannot hide the truth anymore; it cannot be ignored. The figures cannot be simply haggled away. For every Black man who came to the plantations, five died or were crippled.’

Sources:

https://communist.red/capitalism-and-racism-a-marxist-introduction/

https://www.marxists.org/archive/sankara/1984/october/04.htm

https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2023/02/07/ruthie-wilson-gilmore-abolition-geography

https://globalsocialtheory.org/topics/racial-capitalism/

WIKIPEDIA WEAPONISED AGAINST AFRICAN STREAM

Search for ‘African Stream’ on Wikipedia. Notice how the first line immediately alleges that our pan-African, anti-imperialist outlet is a Kremlin proxy? As far back as July, The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal explained that the barrage of media attacks on African Stream from outlets such as NBC was designed to provide a fund of information to be used by Wikipedia. Regarded by many as a reliable source, this Wiki info is then used to shape public perceptions and even fed into AI models.

Since the Max Blumenthal interview, apart from NBC, African Stream has been attacked by the US state-funded Voice of America, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Stanford Internet Observatory. No evidence has been provided for any of the allegations pressed.

Continued…….. While disappointing, Western hypocrisy and double standards are not surprising. We only need to look at the treatment of figures like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden to realise that US claims of being a bastion of democracy and a defender of media freedom are mere posturing. The empire maintains a tight grip on the views and opinions it will tolerate, silencing any voices - like our own - that challenge its imperalist interests.

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If you want to support our work, please consider joining our Patreon! Our African-centered videos take many hours to conceptualise, develop, research, noscript, present and edit. We need your support to sustain the production value of the channel and to help us reach new audiences. Join our community at patreon.com/AfricanStream, where we'll provide some of our members with great perks! Link in Bio!

NAPOLEON’S RACISM AGENDA IN HAITI

Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign against the Black Haitians, particularly under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, was marked by racial brutality and imperial ambition. After the Haitian Revolution erupted in 1791, Haiti became a symbol of Black resistance against European colonialism. France, under Napoleon, sought to reclaim control of the colony and reinstate slavery, which had been abolished during the early years of the revolution. Napoleon’s invasion of Haiti in 1802 was not just a military effort but also a deeply racist campaign aimed at crushing Black autonomy and reasserting white supremacy.

Continued……. Napoleon’s forces were instructed to use extreme violence to subdue the Haitians, treating them as lesser beings unworthy of freedom. His racist policies extended beyond warfare - he sought to restore the plantation economy and reinstitute the brutal conditions of slavery, disregarding the humanity of the Haitian people. The French military employed tactics of terror, including mass executions, and attempted to erase the progress Black Haitians had made toward liberty. Despite Napoleon’s ruthless efforts, the Haitian people, under the leadership of figures like Jean-Jacques Dessalines, eventually won their independence in 1804, making Haiti the first Black republic in the world.

This campaign remains one of the darkest examples of European colonial brutality in the Americas, highlighting the lengths to which powers like France were willing to go to maintain racial hierarchies and economic control. The Haitian victory was a monumental event in world history, challenging the racial order and inspiring anti-colonial movements globally.

Sources:

1. https://allthatsinteresting.com/toussaint-louverture

2. https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/articles/napoleon-the-dark-side-napoleon-and-santo-domingo-haiti-and-santo-domingo-4-min-read/

3. https://www.history.com/news/toussaint-louverture-haiti-revolution

4. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-haitian-revolution-and-the-hole-in-french-high-school-history

BLACK ORGANISERS CRITICISE BLACK GOVERNANCE

More than 640 Black mayors govern US cities, home to 48 million people. That comes to about 14 per cent of the US population. Yet, for the 90 per cent of our people who are working class, these mayors amount to symbols at best and traitors at worst.

That's according to @mapinduzi organisers Dedan Wa Waciuri (@dedanwaciuri on Instagram, @waciuri_dedan on Twitter and @bigkfla600 on TikTok) and Askari wa Watu (@askariwawatu on TikTok and @asafoyusuf on Instagram). Their African Marxist-Leninist community organisation's name, Mapinduzi, is the Swahili word for 'revolution.'

What the men describe at the micro level in a city of 89,000 people like Greenville in the US state of North Carolina, where Black people make up half of the city council, can be seen on a large scale in New York City. There, Mayor Eric Adams, the city's second Black mayor, recently reintroduced stop-and-frisk policing that a court had ruled unconstitutional.

Continued……. On a global scale, the first Black president, Barack Obama, advocated in 2011 that the US invade Libya, kicking off a crisis of governance in that country as well as the creation of slave markets and an upsurge in terrorism in Africa's Sahel region.

The US Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 led to a surge in our people serving as elected and appointed government officials. Some have said this trend is akin to the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) that sought to destroy revolutionary political organising in the United States.

Video credit: @bigkfla600

WHATSAPP FRANCE? AU CHAT ROASTS EX-COLONISERS

Group chats on WhatsApp can get awkward when the wrong people have accidentally been invited. As France and Britain find out when they get roasted by African Union countries in this satirical (not!) sketch.

THE AMAZING AMAZIGH

North Africa is a diverse region home to a multitude of identities, cultures and traditions. One of the significant indigenous ethnic groups living in North Africa as far back as 3000 BC is the Amazigh people. So who are they and what’s their story?

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If you want to support our work, please consider joining our Patreon! Our African-centered videos take many hours to conceptualise, develop, research, noscript, present and edit. We need your support to sustain the production value of the channel and to help us reach new audiences. Join our community at patreon.com/AfricanStream, where we'll provide some of our members with great perks! Link in Bio!

WHY DEBT SINKS AFRICA NOT AMERICA

Why is it that America can run up huge debts and survive, but African countries cannot?
Well, it’s simple. The US can print the greenback, while the rest of the world can’t.
Listen to economist Michael Hudson explain how that basic fact underpins the world order and keeps Uncle Sam on top.

THE UPC: CAMEROON’S TRAGIC INDEPENDENCE HEROES

A shout-out to our brothers and sisters in Cameroon celebrating Independence Day! January 1st marks a pivotal moment in their history: the day the country broke free from colonial domination and embarked on its journey as a sovereign nation. However, this milestone was not achieved without immense sacrifice, revolutionary struggle, and the enduring fight for Pan-African unity. While the date is formally tied to the leadership of French-backed president Ahmadou Ahidjo, the true heroes of Cameroon’s independence remain the revolutionary Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) and the countless lives sacrificed in the fight against imperialism.